Work from Home privacy
November 9, 2020 7:09 AM Subscribe
Hypothetical scenario, asking for a friend. Using personal equipment over personal wifi paid by employee, but plugging personal equipment into laptop docking station furnished by employer to use the larger monitor for personal computing. Still using employee's own wifi, not accessing the work network via VPN. Are the activities done on personal equipment protected from work monitoring?
Just what I asked. If not using work computer, but using work peripherals, and not using work network, what are the general privacy rights in such a scenario? Let's say the work computer is turned off under this scenario.
Just what I asked. If not using work computer, but using work peripherals, and not using work network, what are the general privacy rights in such a scenario? Let's say the work computer is turned off under this scenario.
Most docking stations these days are just a USB / Thunderbolt / USB-C and HDMI expander with ethernet too. They have no method of recording.
posted by nickggully at 7:32 AM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by nickggully at 7:32 AM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Rights? You probably signed something specifically addressing "work equipment" so...none. No rights. No expectation of privacy.
Real world? Someone somewhere has figured out how to snoop on a dock or a monitor, but the chances that your actual employer would bother are negligible. I mean, should you use this setup for porn* or selling drugs on the dark web? Maybe don't, if you're not willing to accept the consequences on the off chance there is either some kind of surveillance OR you make some kind of discretionary mistake.
The thing you want to watch out for, actually, is intellectual property. I strongly recommend not working on any kind of competitive or complimentary product to what your company does, like software/apps or CAD/engineering design or writing a book about your industry, on anything like "work equipment". Or if you do, absolutely have plausible deniability because, again, the possibility that they're snooping the dock or monitor is very slim. But I've seen companies try this gambit when they really wanted ownership of the independently-produced IP, and most companies have some kind of legal counsel on retainer and individuals don't, so just one round of legal dispute on that can be expensive.
*I have worked in IT for many years and men will 100% use their work laptop to watch porn anywhere, any time, and don't even wipe it down with cleaner very well. Consequences are rare (for high-status men, more common for anybody else).
posted by Lyn Never at 8:08 AM on November 9, 2020 [7 favorites]
Real world? Someone somewhere has figured out how to snoop on a dock or a monitor, but the chances that your actual employer would bother are negligible. I mean, should you use this setup for porn* or selling drugs on the dark web? Maybe don't, if you're not willing to accept the consequences on the off chance there is either some kind of surveillance OR you make some kind of discretionary mistake.
The thing you want to watch out for, actually, is intellectual property. I strongly recommend not working on any kind of competitive or complimentary product to what your company does, like software/apps or CAD/engineering design or writing a book about your industry, on anything like "work equipment". Or if you do, absolutely have plausible deniability because, again, the possibility that they're snooping the dock or monitor is very slim. But I've seen companies try this gambit when they really wanted ownership of the independently-produced IP, and most companies have some kind of legal counsel on retainer and individuals don't, so just one round of legal dispute on that can be expensive.
*I have worked in IT for many years and men will 100% use their work laptop to watch porn anywhere, any time, and don't even wipe it down with cleaner very well. Consequences are rare (for high-status men, more common for anybody else).
posted by Lyn Never at 8:08 AM on November 9, 2020 [7 favorites]
Best answer: I'm not an IT guy but I am a lawyer who sometimes does employee investigations and deals with forensic companies and IT backdoors.
From my own experience the logging and traceability is all from software/network design stuff that is built into the work laptop or the network itself rather than what is most likely an off-the-shelf docking station that's just a bunch of "dumb" inputs and outputs. So if you are concerned that the mothership could somehow see what you are doing purely by virtue of using the docking station and monitor I think you are perfectly fine if it's your own computer and your own WiFi.
If you are dealing with a super paternalistic or employee-hostile company, I bet their IT policies say something like "if you are using any of our equipment you have no expectation of privacy and we have a right to monitor or to search." A stretch interpretation of that could include them claiming some right to affirmatively search your personal computer if it was plugged into their docking station and using their monitor. But that's an extreme and aggressive position and if I were the lawyer advising that company I'd tell them to stay far away, especially given all of the intertwining of work and home these days. (And it would be difficult for them to prove - absent an admission from you - that you were even using the docking station and monitor with your own device to begin with.)
posted by AgentRocket at 8:31 AM on November 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
From my own experience the logging and traceability is all from software/network design stuff that is built into the work laptop or the network itself rather than what is most likely an off-the-shelf docking station that's just a bunch of "dumb" inputs and outputs. So if you are concerned that the mothership could somehow see what you are doing purely by virtue of using the docking station and monitor I think you are perfectly fine if it's your own computer and your own WiFi.
If you are dealing with a super paternalistic or employee-hostile company, I bet their IT policies say something like "if you are using any of our equipment you have no expectation of privacy and we have a right to monitor or to search." A stretch interpretation of that could include them claiming some right to affirmatively search your personal computer if it was plugged into their docking station and using their monitor. But that's an extreme and aggressive position and if I were the lawyer advising that company I'd tell them to stay far away, especially given all of the intertwining of work and home these days. (And it would be difficult for them to prove - absent an admission from you - that you were even using the docking station and monitor with your own device to begin with.)
posted by AgentRocket at 8:31 AM on November 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
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Theoretically—e.g., by modifying the docking station—it's possible that such activity could be monitored.
But even if the activity is very likely unmonitored, I wouldn't recommend using company-owned equipment for anything the company wouldn't approve of.
posted by likedoomsday at 7:31 AM on November 9, 2020 [2 favorites]